Saturday’s game against Virginia at PNC Arena was a game of runs. The problem for N.C. State was that Virginia had all of them.
The Wolfpack is a young team. The starting lineup for Saturday consisted of three players in their first season of ACC competition: Freshman guard Anthony “Cat” Barber, freshman forward Kyle Washington and junior guard Desmond Lee, a junior college transfer. They were joined by a redshirt senior in center Jordan Vandenberg, who had played a grand total of 30 games the previous two campaigns. The stalwart, forward T.J. Warren, is only a sophomore. At this point, State will have to get its experience within conference play, and that can be a cold place to learn. There will be some ugly days.
On Saturday, the Cavaliers used sophomore center Mike Tobey and senior forward Akil Mitchell to bully the Wolfpack inside and had a veteran roaming the perimeter in senior guard Joe Harris. It was a clear case of needing to pick a poison and State abstained, allowing all three to work with impunity.
The season is near the halfway point and it appears that teams who have interior strength augmented with a viable outside threat are going to give the Pack problems. Tobey pushed around Vandenberg and whoever else was in his way in the first half. Virginia, with its intricate offensive sets and screening system, always found the correct spots on the floor to punish the State defense.
The Wahoos can actually serve as a model for emulation for the Wolfpack. With four freshmen receiving significant playing time, three frontcourt players and one point guard, N.C. State has the potential in the coming years to get where Virginia is now—an experienced team that works as an effective unit.
Picked to finish 10th in the ACC, State was expected to have its ups-and-downs. That has certainly been the case.
To be fair, the two losses within league play, at home to Pittsburgh and Virginia, were to teams that will present issues to most others as well. But in the ACC, teams like that cannot be avoided. If you do not go through them, they will go through you.
Head coach Mark Gottfried has been insistent with limiting the emphasis for the next game. In the context of this season, with this conference and with his team, that is probably the best approach. N.C. State has been inconsistent since losing a second half lead to Missouri in December, but the rest of the ACC besides Syracuse and Pittsburgh have been as well. Even Virginia had a wretched 35-point loss to the same Tennessee team that the Pack controlled in Knoxville less than two weeks prior.
Pundits and fans however are not bound by such game-to-game restrictions. Looking ahead at the Pack’s schedule, the coming two road games within the state versus Wake Forest and Duke will be followed by a three-game homestand against Maryland, Georgia Tech and Florida State. The way things stand now, wins or losses in any of those particular games would not be incredibly shocking. It is hard to discern where N.C. State might end up.
It would be helpful for the Wolfpack, who are currently 11-5 overall and 1-2 in the ACC, to come out of that stretch playing better basketball. If Gottfried can somehow replicate the magic from N.C. State’s impressive road wins over Tennessee and Notre Dame in February, the Pack still has a realistic shot to cause some damage in the league. Beginning with the annual trip to Chapel Hill on the first day of the month, State will play five of its first six games in February on the road, all within a three-week stretch. That would be brutal even for a senior-laden bunch. As it is, the time for consistency from the young team has arrived.
